King of Hearts
by Gematria
Summary: When he arrived in Tokyo-3, Shinji Ikari was one of the world's greatest martial artists. The only one greater was the man who brought him there. EVA/G Gundam fusion
1. Chapter 1

Standard disclaimer: Don't own Evangelion, don't own Gundam, don't look at me if you're looking to sue.

Special thanks to my buddies at MVC for provoking the conversation that led me to come up with this kooky idea.

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As far as Shinji Ikari knew, he had no family. He lived with a man and a woman, but they were his legal guardians. They were nice enough people, but there was a certain void in his heart that they couldn't fill. It wasn't really due to any fault of theirs.

The closest thing he had to family, he reflected, was his sensei. The man he had trained with for as long as he could remember. And he didn't even know his name! He introduced himself as the Undefeated of the East, and he appeared mysteriously every summer to train Shinji in the martial arts. It had been that way for as long as he could remember.

His sensei was an incredible fighter, that much Shinji knew, who could do things considered impossible by the laws of science. He had once seen his sensei split a boulder with an ordinary piece of cloth. And though he wasn't much for bragging, Shinji liked to think he had come along pretty well himself...he very much doubted there was anyone his age who could stand up to him. That was why his master acknowledged him as the next King of Hearts.

That thought led Shinji to glance at the back of his right hand. The crest was dormant now, as he wasn't actively channeling his ki. But he knew that if he were to focus, the glowing emblem would appear as if by magic. Thinking about the crest reminded him of his last meeting with his teacher.

It had been a fairly normal summer. After proving that he had finally mastered the ability to punch faster than the human eye could follow, Shinji had assumed that the year's training was over, and his master would leave again. This time, however, his master lingered. After bestowing the title of King of Hearts upon him, he handed Shinji a plain envelope and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Upon opening it, Shinji found that he now had an ID card for an organization called NERV, and a note from a man called Gendo Ikari telling him to come to Tokyo-3. Seeing the man's last name caused Shinji's heart to leap into his throat...was this a relative of his? What did he want to speak to him about? And what was NERV?

These thoughts led Shinji to fish around in his pocket for the picture that had come a week later. It was a purple-haired woman, dressed (and posed) rather provocatively, with information on where to meet her scrawled on the back. On the picture itself, someone had drawn an arrow calling attention to the woman's not inconsiderable cleavage. Not for the first time, Shinji wondered if it was really an appropriate thing to send to someone his age...but he put it back in his pocket just the same. No sense looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Thus did Shinji have the time to think about all this, as he sat on an uncomfortable plastic bench in the sweltering Tokyo-3 afternoon heat and waited for this 'Misato Katsuragi' to show. And he waited, and he waited...and he waited. He briefly considered getting up and walking over to the pay phone to call in...but he was a martial artist, and he was used to hardship. So he closed his eyes and began to meditate to try and clear his thoughts.

Almost as soon as he began, however, his meditation was interrupted by a presence nearby. His head snapped up, and for the briefest of instants he could have sworn he saw a blue-haired girl staring at him. Then she was gone, and with her the strange presence. Shinji almost went back to his meditation, when he heard the dull, rhythmic thump of helicopter blades...they were very close. Closer than they should have been, unless there was an airport nearby that Shinji didn't know about. He leapt to his feet in the blink of an eye, and turned towards a nearby hill.

Two military helicopters backed around the hill, their chin-mounted guns roaring as they fired at some distant object. The hairs on Shinji's neck began to stand up...he felt a very powerful presence approaching. He could feel his master's ki, and that of ordinary humans...but this power was something else. His body tensed reflexively.

Shinji was quite surprised when the...whatever it was...strode into view. It looked like something out of an anime, a black-suited giant with no head and long, gangly limbs. Shinji didn't know much about guns, but even from here he could tell that their cannons were nearly as big as he was, and the fact that their bullets seemed to be having no effect at all was quite impressive. He was distracted from the sight, however, by the screeching of tires.

Turning to look at this latest oddity, Shinji was greeted by the sight of a pre-Second Impact sports car lurching around the corner at what he guessed was top speed. The car was barreling straight towards him, which put it as a more immediate threat than the monster lumbering in the background. Shinji focused his ki into his legs, and was about to leap away when the car came to a tire-screeching halt. The driver's side window rolled down, and the face of the woman in Shinji's photograph greeted him. "You Shinji Ikari?" she barked, barely giving him time to respond before adding: "Get in!"

Shinji didn't need to be told twice, especially after hearing a loud explosion in the background; he guessed that was the end of the JSDF choppers. Without a word he sprang into the open passenger's side window, not caring that in his haste he had used a bit of ki to amplify his speed. From Misato's perspective it looked as if he had just disappeared and then reappeared in the seat. He quickly thrust his hand into his pocket, but the damage had been done...he could tell Misato had seen the emblem on his hand before it had faded away.

"I've seen that before," the purple-haired woman said in an oddly conversational tone as she spun the car around and took off the way she came. Shinji hurriedly buckled himself in, because he could tell this was going to be a bumpy ride. "So you really are the commander's son."

That comment threw Shinji. Nearly as much as when Misato took a corner at nearly 110 kilometers an hour. "...father?" he asked with naked curiosity as he pried his face off of the window, his mind racing. There should be only one person in the world allowed to wear that crest other than Shinji himself. But that couldn't be. It made no sense.

"He is the one who asked you to come here, isn't he?" They had hit a straightaway, so Misato risked a brief glance at her passenger. Shinji looked distinctly pale. "Hey, come on...my driving's not that bad is it?"

"I...never knew," Shinji said, his voice betraying his inner confusion. If his master was also his father...why hadn't he said anything? Why didn't Shinji live with him? His thoughts briefly wandered into a dark place: perhaps he wasn't wanted. But that was quickly squashed. His father had trained him in the School of the Undefeated of the East...had acknowledged him as his successor. Whatever reasons he had for keeping their relationship a secret, he wouldn't have done any of that if he hadn't wanted Shinji around. That thought gave him courage, and his next words were less hesitant: "He taught me everything I know but he never told me that."

"I see..." Misato muttered distractedly, as she jerked the car into a tight turn around a parked (and abandoned) delivery truck. Shinji again found his face plastered against the window, but this time he could see the creature off in the distance. It was surrounded by JSDF helicopters, neither side willing to make a move.

"Hey...Captain Katsuragi?" he asked tentatively...he had only seen her name on the back of the postcard, after all, so he wasn't sure what to call her. "What is that thing anyway?"

"Just call me Misato, thanks." She risked another sideways glance at her passenger, and the beast looming in the distance. "That, Shinji, is an Angel. It's the reason why we're all here." With that cryptic comment, she pulled to a stop and whipped out a pair of electronic binoculars that she trained on the Angel.

"We? My father wants me to work for this NERV?" Shinji wasn't quite sure how he felt about that. What good was he going to be against a giant monster anyway? It wasn't like he could just run up and punch the thing.

"That's right, I--oh, they wouldn't...GET DOWN!" And with that sudden cry Misato pounced, pinning Shinji to the seat and shielding him with her own body. He didn't even have time to ask why before there was a bright flash and a roar like thunder, and he felt himself flying.

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The first thing Shinji noticed upon regaining his bearings is that he was now lying on the ceiling of the car, and the floorboards were overhead. The next was that his face had gotten mashed between Misato's breasts somehow during their flight, and he was quick to scramble away before she noticed. Misato apparently did, however, as she let out an amused chuckle before exhaling sharply. "That's not funny, Miss Misato," Shinji bit out with the wounded pride that only a teenager could muster.

This only seemed to make Misato laugh harder as she crawled out of the upturned vehicle and scrambled to her feet. Shinji was right behind her. "Oh, don't be such a prude Shinji..." her voice turned mockingly husky as she continued, "Most boys your age would have killed for that." She was rewarded by the sight of his face turning even redder, which only seemed to make her laugh harder. Then her tone turned serious: "Allright, let's get moving again. That won't stop it for long."

Shinji put his hands on the side of the car, looking askance at Misato. "You're joking, right? Didn't they just detonate a nuclear bomb or something?" He then, with seemingly no effort at all, pushed the car with such force that it flipped over and landed on its tires with a loud bang. Misato gawked openly.

"You...just...but..." She then quickly got her mouth back under control. "Well...first, that was a N2 bomb. If it were a nuke we would be dead right now. And secondly, look. It's still there."

Shinji did as asked, and could see that the monster was indeed still standing. It was completely still, and its shoulders seemed to be twitching, but he couldn't tell how badly it was injured. As he watched, a JSDF chopper flew in to investigate the scene and was quickly blown out of the sky by a beam of light from the Angel. "...guess not."

When he turned back to the car he saw Misato already jogging towards a nearby service station with a tire iron in hand. With a shrug, Shinji followed along at a trot...which quickly caught him up to Misato, earning him a curious look which he returned. Misato broke first. "The car's a mess. If we're going to get anywhere, we need supplies." She waved the tire iron at the glass storefront as if for emphasis. Shinji simply decided to pretend he hadn't heard that.

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Fifteen minutes later and they were underway again, the car's fender and bumper taped in place and multiple batteries daisy-chained together in the backseat for power. "You're sure this is okay?" Shinji asked for the umpteenth time, provoking a twitch out of the captain.

"Allright, allright...I'll make sure that guy gets paid for what we took, okay? Sheesh, you're a regular Boy Scout. Were you going to walk the rest of the way?" Shinji gave her a look, and Misato considered who she was talking to carefully. "...okay, you probably would have. But I have to get there on time too, y'know."

Shinji simply folded his arms over his chest and said nothing. Thankfully the trip was over shortly afterwards, as they pulled in to a car-carrier that began to take them deep underground. After they'd gone what Shinji judged to be a good fifteen meters without seeing anything, he began to wonder just where they were going.

Misato was the first to break the silence, however, when she reached into the backseat and produced a green book that she tossed into Shinji's lap. "Hey, you might want to at least leaf through this while we're waiting."

Having nothing better to do, Shinji picked the book up. The cover was bi-lingual, stamped with 'TOP SECRET' warnings in both English and Japanese, but as he flipped the book open he saw that it was purely Japanese within. It appeared to be a very tedious book of regulations, judging by the table of contents.

"Say..." Shinji glanced up as he heard Misato speak again. She was leaning back in her seat with her arms folded behind her head, and looked oddly contemplative. "You weren't joking when you said your father hadn't told you anything about...?"

"Not a thing," he replied while shaking his head in the negative. Misato chewed her lower lip as if deep in thought.

"I suppose you resent him, then?" Her voice had an odd undercurrent to it that Shinji couldn't read.

"No, not really. I trust my sensei...he wouldn't hide something from me without a very good reason. I do want to ask him why, though. ...why do you ask?" He closed the NERV manual and gave the captain his full attention. He sensed this was important to her for some reason.

"You're a good kid, Shinji. Me? I never really got along with my father." Shinji understood at that point...she was opening up to him for some reason. He couldn't imagine why, though...did he remind her of someone?

That train of thought was abruptly cut off when the car-carrier descended into open air. From what Shinji could tell it looked like he had just descended into a miniature world trapped within a dome. They were passing what looked like buildings hanging from the roof like stalactites, and down below he could see a lake surrounded by a beautiful forest studded with buildings. He couldn't help himself...the word "wow!" bubbled out of his lips without any conscious thought on his part.

Misato seemed to find that amusing, as she gave him a lop-sided grin. "This is our secret base. It's our little fortress hidden away from the world, where we can prepare to fight off the Angels."

It was an awe-inspiring sight. Shinji almost wished he had thought to bring a camera with him. So he settled for gawking like, well, a fourteen-year-old boy for the remainder of the trip. It took them about twenty minutes to spiral around the inside of the dome to the ground, where they took a moving sidewalk the remainder of the way to headquarters.

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It didn't take long for Shinji to learn that, in addition to being a highly dangerous driver, Misato couldn't find her own office with a map and printed directions. The proof was the third time they had passed the sign marked 'LEVEL 20' while looking for...wherever she was supposed to be taking him. "Isn't this the right way?" she muttered, while flipping the map around a couple of times...it was a near-perfect hexagon after all, maybe she had just been looking at it upside-down. Or leftside-up, or...

Shinji simply passed the time by reading the manual. He figured they would be at this for a while. Eventually, however, they came upon an elevator that Misato was sure would take them to the right place. Maybe. About halfway down, however, the elevator stopped and the door opened. The blonde woman who stepped inside was obviously familiar to Misato; she jumped nearly a foot into the air and began, somewhat nervously: "Uh...hiya, Ritsuko."

The blonde, who had her hands firmly stuffed into the pockets of her lab coat, let out an exasperated sigh. "You got lost again, didn't you Captain?" She sounded bemused, as if this sort of thing happened every day. Misato at least had the good grace to blush. Ritsuko then turned to look at Shinji as if scrutinizing him for something. "So you're the Third, then?"

Having no idea what she was talking about, Shinji simply nodded and held his hand out to the woman. "Shinji Ikari. A pleasure to meet you," he said automatically, as it was the polite thing to do. She took his hand in hers with that same bemused grin on her face, and that's when Shinji noticed two things. A, she was wearing a one-piece bathing suit under the lab coat...and B, her hand was... "You're...wet?"

Misato stifled her laughter in the background. Ritsuko, rather than looking offended, seemed to find the remark even more humorous. "No, actually I'm Doctor Ritsuko Akagi. I have to admit I was expecting someone a bit more like your father." Shinji wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, so he went back to his operations manual with a tinge of red on his face. The two women on-board had a good laugh at that, which only made things worse.

Eventually their odyssey took them off the elevator and onto a lift that began to rise up at a forty-five degree angle. Shinji kept his nose firmly in his book, but kept an ear open regardless. Misato and Ritsuko began to talk about something called Unit 01 that had a stunningly low chance of working. Shinji did his best not to notice that they seemed to be climbing the side of a massive tank filled with pinkish liquid.

The two women finally led Shinji into a darkened room. Shinji walked down what felt like a metal gangplank of some kind, and stopped about halfway across. When the lights came on he found himself standing in front of a giant metal head sticking up out of the pink 'water'. The rest of the body appeared to be down in the tank...judging by the length of the trip up it had to be at least forty meters tall. Shinji took a step back reflexively. "What...is that thing?" The purple-plated robot in front of him looked like something out of an anime show...he couldn't believe such things actually existed.

"This...is mankind's trump card." Shinji turned to see Ritsuko standing to his left. "A synthetic human, Evangelion, Unit 01." Her hands were back in the pockets of her lab coat, and her voice was full of pride. Shinji could only guess that she must have worked to make the Evangelion as well. However...

"So, is this my father's work?" He almost couldn't believe it. His sensei was one of the world's greatest martial artists...he wasn't an engineer or a military leader, was he? An immediately familiar and deep voice broke Shinji out of his thoughts, however.

"That's right!"

Shinji's head shot up, and he leapt backwards onto the hand-rail of the catwalk as easily as if it were a flat plane. The flying kick had nearly hit him that time, simply from surprise. As Shinji looked up at the position he formerly occupied, he saw his sensei...his father...standing on one leg, the other raised in the crane stance as his hands fell into place. "Fa--master!" He immediately leapt back onto the catwalk and bowed deeply.

"What's wrong, pupil? You should have easily dodged that kick." Shinji didn't flinch in spite of the criticism...it was an error, and one he would have to make sure never happened again. It was unbecoming. In spite of that, he knew the next words to come from Gendo's mouth: "Answer me, Shinji! The school of the Undefeated of the East!"

Shinji responded in the proscribed manner...he adopted a spread-legged stance in preparation for what was to come, even as he replied: "The winds of the king!"

Gendo advanced without missing a beat, his arms blurring from sight as he fired a withering volley of punches in Shinji's direction while shouting "Zenshin!"

Shinji parried each and every blow with a punch of his own, even as he began to circle around his master's attack. Seemingly unaffected by the exertion he shouted the next word: "Keiretsu!"

The two then stood in place and began to punch even faster...the only sign that their arms were even moving was the whistling of the wind as each fist was expertly batted aside in a display that looked expertly rehearsed in spite of the fact that each fighter was earnestly searching for a weakness in the other's technique. They found none, and instead cried "Tenpakyouran!" in perfect unison.

Proceeding to the next stage, they locked their fists together, each attempting to overpower the other through sheer strength where previously technique had failed. Again, neither yielded an inch, and so they shouted "Look! The east is burning red!" At this point they should have stopped...but both had too much pride at stake, and continued to struggle against the other, until finally they could see that neither would stop. They both stepped away at the same time, and bowed.

Gendo was the first to speak. "How have you been, Shinji? I see I chose well when I named you my successor."

Off to the side, Ritsuko and Misato simply shared an astonished look. "Were you expecting anything remotely like this?" Misato asked her friend, who simply shook her head.

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TO BE CONTINUED...?

**A/N:** Well, I'm not entirely sure yet if this will be anything more than a one-shot. At least I got to the part that I wanted to (the meeting between Gendo and Shinji). If not, well, I got to a good part didn't I:D


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own either of the shows in this 'fic. If you don't believe me, call my lawyer...Phoenix Wright, Attorney at Law.

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Having exchanged the proper greetings with his master, Shinji took the opportunity to look around the room surreptitiously. He was standing on a catwalk overlooking a vast pool of pink fluid. Off to his right was what looked like a gigantic door; to his left was an equally gigantic robot, a purple-armored monster that Shinji couldn't quite believe was real. Behind Gendo, for they had gotten turned around in the 'scuffle', Shinji could see Ritsuko and Misato staring with unmitigated shock.

Obviously his father hadn't shown off his martial arts skills for his employees.

Calling his master, the Undefeated of the East, 'father' was still something that Shinji was having trouble with. He had known the man for nearly his entire life without knowing their relationship...for some reason the old way seemed more comfortable to him, like a well-worn glove.

Gendo must have noticed his pupil's wandering attention, however, as the first words out of his mouth were said loudly and sharply, to cut through the mental fog: "How have you been, Shinji? I see I chose well when I named you my successor."

Shinji at least had the good grace to flush slightly at being caught so obviously. He bowed again. "I'm sorry, fath--master, my mind has been...troubled." He hadn't been directly chastised, at least, but his finely-tuned senses had no trouble detecting the faint note of disappointment in Gendo's voice. Either he had become much better recently, or his master had deliberately let that slip...ordinarily he couldn't detect /anything/ in his tone.

"There was a reason I never told you," Gendo began calmly, giving a faint sigh. Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by a low rumble from above. Ritsuko and Misato nearly stumbled...Gendo and Shinji, however, remained rooted to the ground as if their feet had been nailed down.

"Sir!" An unfamiliar voice rang out in the silence that followed. "The Angel has resumed its attack! It's approaching Entry A!"

Gendo turned to look over his shoulder. A young man in a NERV uniform was standing on the observation platform that he had previously leapt from. "Calm down! The pilot is here. Send Rei back to the infirmary and have Unit 01 prepped for launch." The man saluted upon receiving his orders from Gendo and dashed off to complete them.

This left Shinji thoroughly confused. "Pilot?" Though he was quite an intelligent boy, he felt like nearly half an hour's worth of knowledge had just been crammed into his head in the last five minutes. The best he could do was blink owlishly as his brain struggled to come to the obvious conclusion: "You don't mean..." He could feel his hand coming up to point at himself without any input on his part.

"That's right!" Gendo said as he turned around to face Shinji once more. "Not just anyone can pilot this Evangelion...only certain people can even get inside, and only a student of the School of the Undefeated of the East could possibly use it to its full potential!" Shinji noted with some amusement that as he was saying this, his master had raised his hand into the air and clenched it into a fist...he doubted that Gendo even knew he did that when he was delivering a particularly fiery speech.

Shinji had to admit that the knowledge this was something only he could do was heartening, but he couldn't shake the nagging feeling that there was something off about the whole thing. Giant robots? Monsters? He glanced over at the polished face of Unit 01, and then back at his master. "But, master, I..." He trailed off as he heard a flurry of motion in the distance, his eyes widening slightly as he looked over Gendo's shoulder.

"There's no time for this, Shinji! The Angel will--" Gendo apparently saw the look of surprise on his pupil's face, as he whirled around to investigate. What looked like a cocoon wearing a blue wig was rolled into the area on a gurney...to his horror, Shinji realized that it was a person. "What are you fools doing?!" his master roared, jabbing his finger accusingly. "Didn't you hear my orders? Get Rei out of here!"

The nurses manning the gurney shared a confused look; apparently they hadn't gotten the order. There was another rumble, a louder one this time. The lights overhead flickered briefly, and the impact was strong enough to throw the person in the gurney to the floor with an agonized cry. A girl's cry, a part of Shinji noted dispassionately.

Then there was a loud crack, and Shinji could see movement coming from the ceiling. He crossed the room in the blink of an eye, throwing himself over Rei's body heroically...but he could see that the debris that had fallen from the roof was more than enough to crush even him into a bloody mess, and it was fast...so fast...

Out of options, Shinji did the only thing he could. He closed his eyes to block out the outside world, and he let out a loud cry of anger and denial. It wouldn't end like this! It couldn't!

Because his eyes were closed, he never noticed the crest on his hand beginning to glow. Nor did he notice the eyes of Unit 01 light up in time with the crest.

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When he heard the inevitable crash, it took Shinji a moment to realize that he wasn't dead. At first he thought he had been saved by the Undefeated of the East...it wouldn't be the first time his master had saved him after he'd gotten in over his head. Then he saw his master come to a halt next to him, and heard him ask "Are you okay?"

His master hadn't been in time. Shinji should have been dead. He glanced down at his right hand...on the back of his wrist he could see the familiar emblem, the red-lined black heart with twin swords crossed before it. Beneath the swords was an unfurled scroll that identified the bearer as the King of Hearts.

Looking up, Shinji started as he noticed the massive purple-armored hand of the Evangelion looming overhead. Somehow the machine had protected him and Rei...that's right, Rei!

Briefly embarrassed at not thinking of her first, Shinji looked down at the girl he had attempted to rescue. Her skin was deathly pale, and her short blue hair was matted with sweat. She was wearing an odd rubber suit of some kind, and her body was covered in gauze and bandages. If it weren't for the fact that her body was spasming in obvious agony Shinji could easily have believed she was dead. "I'm fine," he responded distractedly to his sensei, before continuing: "Hey, Rei was it? Rei, are you okay?"

He felt vaguely stupid for asking. Obviously she wasn't. But as the girl opened her one unbandaged eye and fixed her red-hued gaze on him, Shinji couldn't detect any irritation from her...he couldn't detect /anything/. Only his master was that good at hiding his intent, and that was a disquieting thought. "I'm...fine," she managed to grit out, her voice hoarse with pain. Other than that her voice was unusually flat.

The nurses who had brought Rei seemed to find their feet at this point, and were quick to help Shinji get her back on the gurney (even if he didn't really need their help). They then hurried off back to safety. Shinji thought he had replied "I'm glad" too quietly to be heard over the bustle, but Rei's sudden sharp look in his direction hinted otherwise. She stared at him as she was wheeled off, until the doors closed behind her.

Squaring his shoulders, Shinji turned to face his master. "I'll do it. I'll show the Angel the power of our school, so that nobody else has to suffer like that!"

Gendo smiled, for he knew in that instant above all others that he had chosen his successor well. He couldn't see it from this angle, and he doubted his pupil could either, but he knew that on the back of Unit 01's hand, a glowing crest matching Shinji's had appeared.

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Getting inside the Evangelion was almost enough to make Shinji reconsider his offer. The Entry Plug that he was in had seemed like an ordinary enough cockpit...but when it was inserted into the Eva, the controls receded and he was instead forced to stand upon a platform surrounded by monitors that gave him a near 360-degree view of the area around Unit 01. The only gap was a band near the middle, where a metal ring held all the computers and other hardware, as well as the floor and ceiling.

Small clips in his hair were, he was told, intended to transfer nerve impulses to the machine...he was also told that in the future, he would be given a 'plugsuit' that would improve the connection. All he had to do was move his body as he normally did, and the robot would mimic his moves.

Nobody told him it was going to start filling with liquid, however. Whatever it was, it was amber in color and had a particularly foul odor.

Shinji started to get a little worried when it got to neck level and kept rising.

"H-hey! Are you guys trying to drown me or what?!"

A message window appeared in front of Shinji. Ritsuko's face took up the window, and she had that familiar bemused look on her face. "Don't worry, it's LCL." Shinji's face must have betrayed his confusion, because Ritsuko continued after a brief pause. "It'll oxygenate your blood. It's also shock- and heat-resistant. Just take a deep breath and you'll be fine." Then the transmission ended.

Shinji did as he was told, mostly because he had no choice in the matter...the liquid level had just shot over his head, and he could only hold his breath for so long. So he released the breath he had been holding, and took in a lungful of 'sweet' LCL. It tasted about as good as it smelled, which is to say, horrible. It reminded him uncomfortably of blood.

He was so focused on the LCL that when Unit 01 came to a stop, Shinji hadn't even noticed it was moving. He was starting to get a little irritated with himself for spacing out...he wasn't about to let that happen in the middle of a fight. He looked around, and the view on the monitors shifted in near-perfect synchronization.

Another message window appeared, this time with Misato. "Listen, Shinji. Using the Eva isn't too much different from moving normally...I'm told you're the best, so I'm expecting good things from you, okay?" She punctuated the question with a not-entirely-professional wink. Shinji nodded his assent. "Alright! Launch!"

There was a faint 'click' at Shinji's feet, and then he felt himself pushed down by gravity as Unit 01 was launched to the surface. It was a testament to his training that his knees didn't even bend under the strain.

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Unit 01 came up to the surface uncomfortably close to the Angel. It was fortunate for Shinji that Sachiel was busy attempting to burrow into the Geo-Front below and hadn't been paying much attention to its surroundings.

This gave Shinji a moment to analyze his opponent as it turned about, ponderously, to face him. The creature was even uglier now that he had a chance to see it 'up close'...its black flesh was mottled and burnt from the N2 mine attack, and it had somehow sprouted a second bony mask on its chest, giving Shinji no clear idea of where it was looking. Its arms had nasty-looking spikes protruding from the elbows, and it had what looked like armor plating on its shoulders.

"Shinji? Are you ready?"

Misato's voice almost caused Shinji to start. The moment when two fighters have acknowledged each other, but have yet to fight...it's an oddly peaceful moment. He hadn't expected the interruption. "Everything's fine," he responded automatically.

He felt a slight pressure on his shoulders let up as Misato's voice rang out: "Release the final safety lock! Evangelion Unit 01, lift off!" Shinji took that as his cue to begin. All he really knew about Unit 01 at the moment was that it was powered by an external power cable, currently attached to the elevator he came up in...other than that he was free to proceed as normal.

With a shout to raise his fighting spirit, Shinji charged. To his surprise, however, the Angel held out its hand as if to block...and the spike from its elbow shot through its forearm and out through its palm at a speed Shinji could scarcely have imagined.

He braced himself for the impact, and took a half-step back...the pile-driver struck Unit 01 right in the face, but merely threw its head back rather than knocking it off. Shinji felt a sudden sharp pain in his own face, and shook his head to try and clear the unusual sensation. "It's only feedback, Shinji! You're fine!" he heard Ritsuko shout, but he scarcely heard her. He was entirely focused on his opponent now. As he watched, the spike retracted back through the Angel's arm and into its original position.

Unit 01 shot back to its feet at Shinji's command, flexing its fingers as if daring Sachiel to make the first move. The Angel made a big mistake by attempting another blow with the pile-driver...Shinji was prepared for the move this time, and the spike flew wide. He took advantage of the opening by taking a quick half-step forward, balling his hand into a fist, and punching at the target.

The Evangelion mimicked the move, catching Sachiel in one of its chins with such force that the bony spur cracked. The Angel's arms flailed wildly as it fell back into a nearby building, catching Unit 01 in the side of the head with its claws as it passed. In the cockpit, Shinji frowned...the LCL was slowing his movements slightly, and the Eva was responding to them somewhat sluggishly as well. It was a matter of milliseconds, but it was still throwing off his timing.

"Well...I guess I'll just have to finish you quickly!"

With that said he stepped forward, interlocking his fists and attempting to bring them down on the Angel's head as it rose out of the building he had smashed it into. This time it was Shinji's turn to be knocked away, as his fists bounced off a hexagonal orange barrier meters before they touched the enemy.

Shinji vaguely heard someone on the bridge exclaim something about an "AT Field". He didn't quite know what that was, but managed to push off of the skyscraper before smashing through it. His fists still left a huge hole in the structure, but it beat completely leveling it.

"Shinji." The message window appeared out of Shinji's field of view (so he wouldn't be distracted), but he recognized the voice of his father. "That technique I forbade you from using? Use it on the Angel. It's the only way you can defeat it."

"Father?" Shinji raised his arms to block an energy blast from the Angel; the armor on Unit 01's forearms was more than sufficient to defray the half-hearted blast. "Are you sure?"

He almost thought he detected a note of amusement in his master's voice as Gendo replied: "You have been practicing it, haven't you?" Then he ended the transmission, leaving Shinji to fight on his own terms. Shinji took a step back to give himself the appropriate amount of space, and did his best to ignore the compact car he flattened in the process.

"Okay! That punch of yours is really something...but let's see how it matches up against these fingers!" Shinji clenched his right hand into a fist, holding it up into the air as Unit 01 repeated the gesture. The crest of the King of Hearts appeared on his hand, and with a flash of light it appeared on the Evangelion's as well. Unit 01 surged forward, holding its right hand at its side with its fingers spread wide.

Sachiel attempted to interrupt the charge by raising its hand and firing its pile-driver. Had Shinji continued he would have run right into the spike, but it never got the chance to reach him. His hand began to glow with an eerie yellow light, and a similar glow burst from the fingertips of Unit 01 before engulfing its entire right hand. Shinji thrust his hand out before him, and as it came into contact with Sachiel's weapon, the spike disappeared as it ground against the energy field surrounding Unit 01's hand and was vaporized.

"Here I go! SHINING...FINGER!"

Unit 01's hand didn't stop with the pile-driver. It continued on through Sachiel's forearm, completely obliterating it, before smashing into the Angel's chest and coming to rest with its core in the Evangelion's grasp. The monster froze as if in shock. Perhaps it couldn't believe that it was being defeated by a Lilim. Perhaps it was in too much pain.

The creature's thoughts were ultimately rendered moot, however. With a cry of "Heat End!", Shinji squeezed his open hand into a fist. Unit 01 followed, crushing the Angel's core into fragments before pulling free.

The Angel keeled over as if in slow motion. Its body had scarcely hit the ground before it suddenly exploded into a gigantic column of fire, vaporizing every building in a three block radius and destroying most of the cameras NERV were using to monitor the battle.

Shinji felt himself flying through the air once more. There was a loud 'crack!', and he felt a liquid that wasn't LCL oozing out of the back of his head before the darkness overtook him.

-----------------

There was chaos on the bridge as the NERV staff frantically tried to regain contact with Unit 01 and Shinji. Above it all, Gendo and his sub-commander Kozo Fuyutsuki sat stoically, observing the entire scene.

Finally, one of the technicians looked up and reported: "Backup sensors in district 3A are on-line! We have a visual!"

The previous tense air on the bridge instantly dissipated as the camera showed Unit 01, wedged into a building yet unmoving. Several technicians let out excited cheers before remembering their decorum, and Captain Katsuragi went so far as to hug Ritsuko before scurrying to contact their pilot.

The mood turned more serious when they got no response.

Fuyutsuki allowed himself a glance at his superior. "You taught him /that/ move, Undefeated of the East? You know the old men are unhappy as it is." The rest of the bridge crew were far too distracted to eavesdrop, thankfully.

Gendo's elbows were on the desk before him, his gloved hands blocking his mouth from view in his usual style. But he was smiling a faint, satisfied smile. "They'll manage. It's what the Shuffle Alliance does best, after all, isn't it?"

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**A/N:** I'm not going to get into the habit of responding to reviews because that's lame, but I figured you guys at least deserved a blanket description of where I'm going with this.

1) This story takes place in the world of Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's basically EVA cast through a certain filter. So while there may be certain familiar elements, there are no mobile suits or mobile fighters in this world, nor will Domon and crew be stopping by. Picture this as a giant-sized issue of 'What If?'. You will, however, notice that the Entry Plug is different in this story...

2) ...no, this isn't going to be a harem 'fic. Sorry.

3) There is, indeed, a terrible monster that the heroes will have to face in the end. Is it a devil? Is it a saint?

Starting next chapter, my Author's Notes will exclusively be used for data on things that have changed.


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